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Power session

A huge thank you to Eugene and Brookings for posting power-related references. I’m looking into it! I’ve included below a handful of my reflections on the subject and session:

I appreciated Dana’s comments on her appreciation of a session on power that started with what we intrinsically know about power. At the same time, I personally found it more difficult to speak and write about power without having a baseline understanding of the terms, and am looking forward to reading more about the topic. I guess I’m one of those people who likes pre-reads before practice:-)

I loved the practice of asking folks what makes them feel powerful and then dissecting–and sharing–the elements that make up a powerful experience. In our small group, we heard things as varied as feeling physically strong, overcoming physical weakness, and facilitation.

Using classical and contemporary videos to learn about power was brilliant. I’d love an opportunity to analyze our own videos as well.

Since our last Bootcamp I had a deep, difficult, and somewhat abrasive 30 minute phone conversation with a white 60 year old tenured super smart professor about business school. Details aside, the conversation left me feeling self-conscious and confused. Nearly in tears, I asked myself: In 10 years, would I be able to better hold my own in a conversation with this man or another like him? Last week we touched on how to recognize power differentials–the symptoms… I’d like to go into how one trains him or herself to better handle these situations…

You’re the second of my bootcampers (@renee being the other) to request some sort of framework before the practice. I get the desire and also the learning style, and I’m constantly evaluating when this is most appropriate. I had a workout at my last bootcamp that absolutely needed it and ended up flopping because I didn’t provide it. (Do-over coming soon!)

For the power workout, I’m still feeling comfortable not providing it up-front, although I will continue to monitor this. I don’t mind people feeling discomfort, because that’s when learning happens, and it’s a useful competency to practice. Your third bullet helps validate that for me. However, I also appreciate it when you share that discomfort, as there’s a fine balance in how much or how little you want people to be experiencing.

I’ll share the video from this group so that you can do the analysis if you’d like.

Finally, thank you so much for sharing the story about your phone conversation. We have a “difficult conversations” workout coming up, and so you’ll be able to examine this question in a very real way very soon!